Rode’s first wireless system works a treat; fast to get going with and great audio too. The Filmmaker Kit comes with a transmitter receiver, the excellent Rode Lavalier mic and also a minijack cable for attaching the receiver to your camera or audio recorder.

“London Taxi”

A short film shot on the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II camera. The film was shot using two cameras and the following Olympus M.Zuiko lenses: 9mm f8 (Body Cap Lens), 12mm f2, 12-40mm f2.8PRO, 25mm f1.8, 45mm f1.8 and 75mm f1.8.

I have since made a shorter edit with a different grade of London Taxi (above) and it’s called, Taxi Driver:

Ambient audio was recorded on camera using a Rode Stereo VideoMic X. Audio was also recorded using an Olympus LS-100 with it’s internal microphones for ambient sounds and also hooked up via XLR to a Rode NTG3 for other atmospheric recordings. A Rode Lavalier microphone was used for for the interviews, attached to the Olymps LS-100 via it’s XLR input. All of the microphone mounts and windjammers used (apart from the one on the Stereo VideoMic X) were by Rycote.

The majority of shots were hand held, using the camera’s built in stabilisation system to keep the shots steady. For the shots where the camera was attached to the taxi, a Delkin Fat Gheko camera mount was used. A Manfrotto tripod and video monopod was also used for the interview and cab rank scenes.
Editing was done on an Apple Mac Pro and FCP X, using Eizo CG-276 monitors and monitoring audio on Event Opals. Asset management and image processing were done on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Best Documentary Finalist

We’re absolutely delighted to share that our short documentary film on pinball is a finalist in the Rode Reel 2014 competition. Our team of Magda Rakita and Neil Patience (TAP TV) would like to thank Rode Microphones and Philip Bloom who was the judge for the category.

We’d like to congratulate all the winners; some exceptional work. You can view the entries HERE.

The film, 1 Sixpence 1 Play, was shot on a pair of Olympus OM-D E-M1 cameras and Olympus lenses. We also used a GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition for a few shots from on the play field. All audio was recorded onto a Roland R26 using various Rode microphones. The films (including the behind the scenes) were edited using FCP X on a Mac Pro, using Eizo monitors and Event Opal audio monitors for the sound edit. For a more detailed post on this, including the behind the scenes video, please see HERE.

I was honoured to have been invited to speak at the 40th International Features Conference (IFC) in May, which took place in the delightful town of Leipzig in Germany. I need to point out though that the IFC is about radio; it’s a conference which gets together the best in radio features journalists. My talk? Well, my talk was naturally going to be about photography.

Initially, it seems to most that the concept of having photography spoken about to folks whose medium is radio, simply is a tad bizarre; one is a visual discipline whilst the other is purely about audio. However, photography, audio (and other forms of story telling) are only the end tool. The initial steps in finding a story; dissecting it, checking it out journalistically, planning out how to convey it, are in fact all the same. It’s only the end tool, the tool of delivery which differs.

The main hall at the IFC (International Features Conference), Media Campus (Medienstifftung der Sparkasse Leipzig), Poetenweg, Leipzig, Germany. The delegates listen to features programmes which will then be discussed in smaller groups. May 14, 2014. Photo: Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I was fortunate to be able to attend the conference in full and was rewarded by hearing some absolutely astonishing work, from across the world. After listening to a couple of productions, we would break into our smaller groups and discuss these at length. I must admit to being extremely shy in opening my novice mouth and giving an opinion in this world of radio at first, but soon the shyness went and I found myself deep in conversation and discussion with the best people on the planet in this genre of features work. Absolutely fascinating.

What really astonished me as the week went on was just how vivid a picture radio can paint; how gripping, deep, gentle, forceful, subtle and layered a good piece of radio work can be. Absolutely brilliant. I also had the absolute joy of meeting some fascinating people and making a few friends along the way. You all know who you are and I’d like to thank you for making the conference even more special than it already was.

Rode Reel Entry For 2014

Two days of shooting, many days of editing; a collaboration with the assistance of Magda Rakita, who also shot the “Behind The Scenes” film and the talented Neil Patience, from TAP TV, who gave direction on the editing, and our new short documentary film is done.

It’s a story on James Millham who is a pinball enthusiast. A collector and renovator of machines from a pre-Space Invaders era, James says the best thing about his hobby is playing the games.

We shot this film for the Rode Reel 2014 competition. Part of the competition is the People’s Choice prize. If you liked our films, we’d really appreciate your support. Kindly take a few seconds and vote for us; we’d be tremendously grateful!

With RØDE Microphones and Scan

I did a live webinar a short while ago with Jonathan Burrows for the fabulous folks at Scan and Source Distribution, talking about how I use Rode Microphones in my film making. If you’re not familiar with Scan, I can’t recommend them highly enough for all your computer component and peripheral needs; I’ve been using them for well over a decade!

The webinar is in two parts; hope you find it useful 🙂 To view the films mentioned in the webinar, please visit www.teravision.eu

A Multimedia Piece On LA; Its People, Its Places

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is a burger restaurant where every Friday night, classic car enthusiasts gather to show off their classic restored cars and hotrods. Los Angeles, California, USA. January 17, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

On a recent trip to Hollywood to attend the Taste Awards ceremony at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard as a finalist for my film on the Electric Coffee Company, I decided to shoot a project on Los Angeles.

My initial thought was to shoot a photo series of daily life, a photo series on TV Host Andrea Feczko and separately, a video interview with the legendary AP photographer, Nick Ut. As my time in LA continued, I shot a wider set of imagery and short video interview with LA street artist Plastic Jesus.

(L-R) AP photographer Nick Ut, author of the Pulitzer Award winning “Napalm Girl” photograph (shown) from the Vietnam War and Edmond Terakopian. Image shows some of Nick Ut’s cameras used during the Vietnam War and more modern cameras; on the right is Edmond Terakopian’s Olympus OM-D E-M1. Thompson Beverly Hills, LA, California, USA. January 18, 2014. Photo: Edmond Terakopian (self timer image)

For the project, I took an Olympus OM-D E-M1 and Olympus M.Zuiko lenses; the 12-40mm f2.8PRO, 25mm f1.8 (see my review of this superb lens) and 45mm f1.8. I also took along a Roland R26 audio recorder and the Rode Lavalier and VideoMic Pro microphones. Lastly, possibly the most used accessory, a Lastolite reflector which didn’t stop getting used for the beach and pool shots with Andrea. I don’t think in my lifetime I’ve used a reflector as much as I did over those two days!

When looking at the material as a whole, it became apparent that it all would make an immersive multimedia piece, mixing photography (and time lapse photography) with video, some audio and the right music. After I’d done my photo editing and processing in Aperture, I fired up FCP X and started to look at the material as one unified project. 64 hours of editing later, I had my “LA Diary”.

The interviews with Nick Ut and Plastic Jesus are short tasters as I will be editing more in-depth versions of these in due course. For the LA Diary, it worked better to have shorter, sharper video segments to fit in with the flow of the entire piece. The flow was helped along tremendously wight he correct music and I spent a while listening to various pieces. I’ve mixed, edited and cut quite a few of the tracks, bringing in audio on it’s own or with video and getting the delicate balance just right was tremendously helped along by using the astonishing Event Opal audio monitors.

During the project I had a lot of help from various people, so a huge thanks goes out to: Nick Ut, Associated Press, Andrea Feczko, Rachel Rudwall, Plastic Jesus, Armen Khanlian, Yvette K. Mankerian, Nick Stern, Joseph Hovanessian, Thompson Beverly Hills hotel, Kellee Griffith, Michelle Nouraei, Roxana Alas, Rachel Rudwall and Mark Thackara. The project could not have been done without your help; you have my thanks 🙂